Press Releases

Be Alert! New Fraud Attempt Explained Here

November 13, 2012

Bank Clients should be alert to the following ‘phishing’ fraud attempt.

Whenever you receive an email like the following example that has just been received by a client and others and reported, NEVER click on the link provided. It is always safe business practice to contact your vendors using the contact information THEY provide, not from a random email regardless of how ‘official’ it appears. This particular fraud attempt targeted payroll processing. Notice the spelling error of the word “removed” in the first bullet point. Or perhaps the writer misused the word ‘revoked’ instead. Many times fraud perpetrators are international and not adept at English. Unusual words, misspelled words, unusual phrases — all are ‘red flags’ and should not be ignored.

THIS IS THE ACTUAL ‘FRAUDULENT’ EMAIL CURRENTLY BEING ROUTED TO RANDOM PERSONAL AND BUSINESS EMAIL ADDRESSES:

Direct Deposit Service Informer

Informational Only

We processed your payroll on November 1, 2012 at 365 PM Pacific Time.

Money would be revoked from the Checking account number ending in: XXX3 on November 2, 2012.

Funds are typically departed before business banking hours so please be sure you have enough Cash on the account by 12 a.m. on the date Funds are to be withdrawn.

Intuit must process your payroll by 4 p.m. Eastern time, two banking days before your paycheck date or your personnel will not be paid on time. QuickBooks does not process payrolls on weekends or federal banking holidays. A list of federal banking holidays can be viewed at the Federal Reserve website.

Thank you for your business.

Regards,

Intuit Payroll Services

Read More About “Phishing” Here And Be Alert and Prepared!

Phishing (FISHing)

Phishing is a high-tech scam that uses spam or pop-up messages to attempt to deceive you into disclosing your credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, and other sensitive information. Phishing is the term coined by hackers who imitate legitimate companies in e-mails to entice people to share passwords or credit card numbers. While the above example did not involve a request from a bank, please remember: First Landmark Bank will never send e-mails requesting personal information. We will never ask you to “verify” personal financial information through an e-mail. We will never ask you to click on a special site link to do so. While emails of this nature may look like they are from us, and may even use our logo, they are likely a “phishing” scam. Do not answer them. If you receive an email purporting to be from us, do not hesitate to call us to confirm it.